Launching posts and the remote control of missiles



A '3, 1968 J.FAISANDIER' 3,396,629

LAUNCHING POSTS AND THE REMOTE CONTROL OF MISSILES Filed March 31, 1966 United States Patent 3,396,629 LAUNCHING POSTS AND THE REMOTE CONTROL OF MISSILES Jacques Faisandier, 32 Blvd. Felix Faure, 'Chatillon-sous-Bagneux, France Filed Mar. 31, 1966, Ser. No. 539,081 Claims priority, application France, Apr. 6, 1965, 12 608 6 Claims. 61. 89-1315) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE This invention relates to the launching and remote control or teleguidance of missiles, and provides an arrangement or post capable of receiving the plant and the personnel for launching and teleguidance, this arrangement being more particularly designed to be mounted on a land or sea vehicle, not merely on a car or on a motor boat or the like, but also on larger vessels, capable of admitting :a plurality of stations including particularly posts operated by radio control, whether these posts are subjected individually or collectively to a central station, or Whether the post in question operates as the central controlling member of the central station.

The post according to the invention comprises provision for two operators or gunners, namely: an aiming or laying gunner, who effects the aiming for the line and for elevation; and a teleguiding gunner, who effects the launching, and the teleguidance after launching, the fundamental idea being the superposing in space of the two gunners, the aiming gunner maintaining, by his action, in the direction of the target, the line of sight of the viewfinder of the teleguiding gunner.

The arrangement according to the invention comprises:

A platform capable of revolving about a vertical axis;

A shaft capable of revolving about a horizontal axis; the rotations of the platform and of the shaft being controlled with the aid of aiming devices, both in direction and in elevation, carried by the platform, and possibly operated by remote control;

An arm supported by the platform, fixed, in principle, relatively to the latter, this arm supporting, at its free end, articulated thereto, the teleguiding appliances, and the seat for the guiding gunner;

One or more missiles supported by cradles rotationally integral with the platform and with the said shaft.

The arm is in principle stationary relatively to the platform, and the support for the teleguiding appliances, as well as the seat for the guiding gunner, are articulated for rotation about another shaft, a horizontal shaft carried by the arm, and, by any convenient transmission device, are integral in rotation with the sight-finder of the aiming gunner as regards the angle of elevation.

Owing to this device, the laying gunner, when orienting his sight-finder in full view of the target, controls the orientation in training and in elevation, both of the missiles and of the view-finder of the teleguiding gunner.

As a modification, the arm may be integral in rotation with the horizontal shaft, and therefore with the cradles that carry the missiles.

Other features will be gathered from the following description of one embodiment of the invention, but without the inventor Wishing to restrict the generic scope of his invention by the details or by the specific peculiarities of the example selected for illustration.

In the accompanying drawings, FIGURE 1 is a diagrammatic view in elevation, the axis of sight being assumed to be in the plane of the drawing, the cabins of the two gunners being assumed to be transparent, and the missiles being indicated in broken lines;

FIGURE 2 is a plan view corresponding to FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 3 is a kinematic diagram of the control of the arm that supports the teleguidance plant, and the seat of the teleguiding gunner.

In these drawings, 1 denotes a rotatable platform, mounted on a column 2, in such a manner as to be able to revolve about an axis, which for the sake of convenience will hereinafter be referred to as a vertical axis, seeing that this axis corresponds to an axis of vertical rotation of rotary turrets, mounted upon a stationary base.

The motor causing the rotation about the said vertical axis is not shown.

The platform 1 supports a shaft 3, in principle horizontal, in all cases supported upon the platform, by a frame and any suitable rolling bearings, so as to be perpendicular to the axis of vertical rotation of the platform, and to be able itself to revolve about its own axis.

The motor causing the rotation of this shaft is not shown.

At the ends of this shaft are supported, in such a way as to be rotationally integral with this shaft, the cradles of the two missiles 4 and -5.

The platform carries the sight-finder 6, and the seat 7 for the laying gunner.

9 denotes the manipulator, which controls the two motors, which effect the rotation of the platform about its axis and the rotation of the shaft 3 about its axis, that is to say, the motors that effect the aiming, for the line and for elevation.

The sight-finder 6 is integral in rotation with the shaft 3, thanks to any suitable transmission device.

A supporting arm 10 supports the seat of the teleguidance gunner and the teleguidance appliances.

At the free end of the arm 10, the seat 11 of the guidance gunner is rotationally movable about the axis of oscillation 12 and the teleguiding appliances, that is to say, the view-finder 15 and the teleguiding manipulator, are supported through the medium of the seat of the teleguidance gunner.

The elevational movements of the sight-finder are transmitted to the support of the seat of the teleguidance gunner, and thence to the tele-control appliances by any appropriate transmissions, for instance by a jointed parallelogram, such as is diagrammatically illustrated in FIG- URE 3.

In this figure the arm 10 is assumed to be stationary, relatively to the rotary platform.

The points 12 and 13 of the parallelogram are points of articulation of the seat of the teleguidance gunner and/ or of the support of the teleguidance appliances, and the point 14 is solid in elevation with the movements of the sight-finder, manipulated by the aiming gunner. 16 is a stationary point of articulation.

Thanks to the arrangement described, the aiming gunner is in a position to follow the variations of the target by the aiming for the line and for elevation, so that the teleguidance gunner can at any moment control the discharge of the missiles, independently of the movements of the vehicle that serves to support the apparatus as a whole.

If there is on the ship a central station the aiming gunner may be omitted, and replaced by any one of the modern standard remote control devices.

What we claim is:

1. In a device for launching and controlling teleguided missiles comprising:

(a) A firing platform carrying launching cradles for said missiles,

(b) The combination of said platform and cradles having two axes perpendicular to each other and about which said combination of said platform and cradles may move,

() An arm supported by said platform,

(d) A teleguiding device,

(e) A support for said teleguiding device,

(f) Said arm supporting said support for said teleguiding device,

(g) Said support having an axis parallel to one of said perpendicular axes, about which said support may move,

(h) An aiming device mounted on said platform and having a further axis about which said aiming device may move, and

(i) said further axis being parallel to said axis of said support.

2. A launching device as set forth in claim 1, further comprising:

(a) means for making integral the rotation of said aiming device and the rotation of said support respectively about their axes,

(b) said last-mentioned axes being parallel to each other.

3. A launching device as set forth in claim 1 wherein:

(a) said arm is mounted for rotation about one of said perpendicular axes.

4. A launching device as set forth in claim 2 wherein;

(a) said means for making integral the rotation of said aiming device and the rotation of said support includes means for making integral the rotation of said cradles, all about their respective axes.

5. A launching device as set forth in claim 2 wherein;

(a) said arm is mounted for rotation about one of said perpendicular axes.

6. A launching device as set forth in claim 5 wherein;

(a) said means for making integral the rotation of said aiming device and the rotation of said support includes means for making integral the rotation of said cradles, all about their respective axes.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,813,534 7/1931 Ford -41 X 2,407,191 9/1946 Tear et 'al. 3,293,985 12/1966 Stautf et a1. 89-1.815

SAMUEL W. ENGLE, Primary Examiner. 

